One arrangement for handling electrical connector assemblies or electrical connector components is a high density tray or magazine fabricated of a sheet of formed plastic material. For instance, a thin sheet of polyvinyl chloride is thermal formed or vacuum formed to provide a high density tray for electrical connectors. These types of trays typically are used for supporting electrical connectors of the type having an elongated dielectric housing within which electrical terminals are secured. These trays support the electrical connectors or elongated housings in a side-by-side array. For instance, the trays are used extensively with edge card connectors or SIMM connectors widely used in the connector industry.
An example of one such packaging tray of the prior art is shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 054,333, filed Apr. 28, 1993 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Such prior art packaging tray includes a floor, opposite side walls, a closed end defined by a rear wall and an open front end. A plurality of spaced apart rails extend upwardly from the floor and generally parallel to the side walls to define parallel channels therebetween. The side walls and rails each include a notch near the open end of the tray to receive a rod-like member in order to close the open end of the tray.
One of the problems with packaging trays of the character described above is that the overall dimensions of the trays have become somewhat standardized, but the sizes of the connectors to be supported by the trays can vary widely. Edge card connectors, for instance, are manufactured in many different circuit sizes and, thus, many different lengths. For any standard size tray, connectors of certain sizes (i.e., lengths) will fill the tray in a relatively efficient manner with very little open area. Other size connectors, however, will result in large open areas in the trays which results in very inefficient use of space. In addition, different lengths of connectors will have different centers of gravity. Thus, different length connectors require support at different locations.
The present invention is directed to solving these problems by providing a tray which is adaptable for supporting different sizes of connectors with housings of different lengths.